HD Hyundai Marine Solution Co., the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of 2024 in South Korea, saw its shares surge nearly 100 percent on the first trading day on the main Kospi market on Wednesday.

According to the Korea Exchange, shares of HD Hyundai Marine Solution closed at 163,900 won ($119.90), up 96.52 percent from the offering price of 83,400 won.

The company’s stock price started with a rise of over 40 percent in the early hours of trading and soared 99.16 percent to 166,100 won at one point.

The company‘s market capitalization stood at 7.29 trillion won as of the day’s close, ranking 56th on the Kospi. Lead managers for its listing were KB Securities Co., UBS Group AG, and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Shares of HD Hyundai Marine Solution were trading 8.11 percent higher at 177,200 won as of 10:25 a.m. on Thursday.

HD Hyundai Marine Solution held a book building session from April 16 to 22, recording a competition ratio of 201 to 1. The total offering amount was about 82 trillion won, the largest so far this year. The offering price was confirmed at the upper end of the desired range at 83,400 won.

During public subscription on April 25 and 26, the competition ratio was about 225.8 to 1. A total of 25 trillion won was collected in deposits, the largest so far this year.

HD Hyundai Marine Solution is a ship after-sales management (AM) company established in November 2016. It provides services such as ship parts and fuel sales, as well as eco-friendly ship retrofitting and digital transformation of ships.

HD Hyundai Co. holds a 55.8 percent stake in the company as of the listing date.

HD Hyundai Marine Solution posted sales of 1.43 trillion won and operating profit of 201.5 billion won in 2023.

The surge in HD Hyundai Marine Solution‘s stock price during its debut on the stock market is raising expectations in the securities market that the IPO market, which has been driven by small and medium-sized offerings since the end of 2023, will lead to multi-trillion won mega-offerings.

By Oh Dae-seok and Yoon Yeon-hae

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